Euroleague 2012-13 Regular Season Opens

They’ve gone through months of shuffling their rosters trying to fill any weaknesses; they’ve been sat back and watched the Qualification Round to see which team would join them; they endured media day the best that they could (see picture above…); some played friendlies against NBA squads at home, some traveled to the US and Canada to play exhibitions against NBA teams, some just watched on TV or read about their peers getting the added exposure; they watched the draw to find out the teams they’d be matched up with in the Regular Season; they’ve found out that they’ll be switching to a new basketball made by Spalding instead of the Molten GG7 used by FIBA; and now, The Euroleague 2012-13 Regular Season opens today with seven games and a number of changes designed to expand the league to more fans by adding games and shifting when they are played. It’s time for what they do best, it’s time to play basketball…

The 2012-13 campaign will feature five “phases” of competition: 1). The Qualification Round (Sept. 25-28, 2012) – which has completed and saw Mapooro Cantu earn the last spot in Group A by winning the single-elimination round that they hosted; 2). Regular Season (Oct. 11 – Dec. 14, 2012) – Four Groups of Six teams will play two games against each other, home and away with the top four teams advancing to the next round; 3). “Top 16” (Dec. 27, 2012 – April 5, 2013) – four teams from four regular season groups will give this round 16 teams. In years past the “Top 16” was divided again into four Groups of four, but this season they will play in two groups of eight and will play each other twice, home and away, for 14 instead of six games. 4). Playoffs (April 9-25, 2013) – the top four teams from the two groups will play the Quarter-Finals; 5). Final Four (May 10-12, 2013) – to be held at he O2 in London.

By changing the Top 16 round from four groups of four and playing each team twice, they’ve expanded to eight-team groups played twice for 14 games or an eight game increase. This is set up to give fans more exposure to the top 16 teams in the league. They’ve also reduced the amount of time between phases to keep the teams sharp.

Probably more significantly is the shift from Wednesday-Thursday contests to Thursday-Friday contests so that they don’t have to compete with Champions League Football.

Pre-season favorites have been tabbed as Fenerbahçe Ülker, FC Barcelona Regal, CSKA Moscow, Panathinaikos and defending Euroleague champion Olympiacos to be booking tickets to London for next May’s “Final Four”, but that road for all but Mapooro Cantu, who started their journey a few weeks ago in the Qualification Round, starts tonight with game 1 of their 10-game regular season.

Pick your “Final Four” and put them in the comments section…

Group A
[standings league_id=7 group=A]
[matches league_id=7 match_day=1 group=A]
Group B
[standings league_id=7 group=B]
[matches league_id=7 match_day=1 group=B]
Group C
[standings league_id=7 group=C]
[matches league_id=7 match_day=1 group=C]
Group D
[standings league_id=7 group=D]
[matches league_id=7 match_day=1 group=D]